One Step

Over the past month I have been learning a very valuable lesson about God.  God only needs us to take the first step.  When I say that I mean that we have to turn into the direction of God's will.  I grew up hearing Psalm 37:23, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way."  It is a verse that people love to bring up when bad things happen and we do not know why but this month I have been learning a new meaning to this verse. 

When I was in the military we would do drills.  During drill we would form up into a unit of perfect lines.  Our "drill instructor" would then order us to make different movements.  We would march forward, turn on command, and stop on a dime.  Now all of the members of the unit had the free will to ignore the orders and mess the whole formation up but when we all decided to follow the leader's orders we turned into a thing of beauty.  Anyone that has seen the military performing drill can attest that it is amazing that 60+ men and women can be in such perfect sync with each other.

Now back to Psalm 37:23, it says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.  It is our choice whether we will follow these orders.  If we do then we know, as military members doing drill know, we only have to make the first step and then move in that direction until our leader issues a new order to go a new direction.

I began this post by stating that I have been learning this lesson this month and now I would like to tell you how.  About two months ago, God told me to have a young adult retreat at the end of August.  Needless to say, an undertaking like this was not what a person could do in a matter of two months.  This being as it may, I agreed and took the first step by talking to my senior pastor.  Immediately the vision was shared and it began to gain traction.  The more people that I talked to, the more people got excited about it.  When I went to people that I wanted to delegate jobs to, they agreed.  I am amazed to see how God has prepared everyone for this almost like "it is all part of the plan."  I cannot wait to see what is to come and I will keep you all posted as God performs this miracle that I never expected.

Conversations

About two weeks ago, I read a couple of books and a slew of magazine articles about young adults and God.  One of the biggest complaints that I kept seeing was that their isn't enough connection.  This realization birthed a desire inside me to find a way to connect young adults outside the walls of the church.  For two days I prayed that God would give me a vision on how to provide this connection.  God was faithful and he gave me two prong vision.  The first was a place where young adults could come and post comments and questions about previous messages and relevant topics.  This has fleshed itself out in the way of  "Conversations", the new blog for Vectored Young Adults.  The second prong is a vision for a forum for young adults to post their own questions, God-related and Secular as well as a place to put ads about upcoming events, help wanted (I'm thinking for moving or if I am forming a committee), or just to give an encouraging word or give a testimony.  This prong is currently in development but God has blessed me with the tools to pull it off. 

Here is the link for "Conversations".

Into a Season of New Learning

I have just left a season of learning from man as I finished my Spring semester of college.  Only two years left.  God has placed me into a job that gives me ample time to read.  Also, being a bookstore, people expect the person behind the counter to be reading.  This being said, tomorrow I begin a new season of learning.  My office shelves have been crying out to me as they have accumillated new additions all year and have been waiting for me to have the time to read them all.  Personally, I can hardly wait to daily feed myself with some God inspired words.

Summer also allows me to recharge my batteries and spend time devouring the word of God instead of taking small bites in between the class readings of college.  It is time to feast and if anyone would like to join me at the table I challenge you to do so.

Books on my list this Month

Primal

by Mark Batterson

College Ministries 101

by Chuck Bomar

essential church?

by Thom S. Rainer & Sam S. Rainer III

UnChristian

by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyon

If you would like to read and discuss them with me then send me a message and we'll set up some times to get together and discuss them.

Revolutionary Love

2 Peter 3:9 states:

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

I start this entry with this scripture because I look around tonight and see the death of a man cheered for.  While the man did unbelievable evil to many in this world, my God tells me to love him, to forgive him, and pray for him.  This may be the most difficult of all commands that we must abide by as Christians. 


As I sat tonight watching the news come in, I saw the news reporter high 5'ing everyone and literal tears fell from their eyes as happiness overwhelmed them.  I looked at my wife and asked, "Why do we cheer when we kill someone?"  I cheer when we win the war, I cheer when we see people freed from tyranny, I cheer when my brothers and sisters in uniform get to come home, I cheer for all these but I can never cheer for death.  The enemy of my soul cheers for death.  He cheers that another soul is claimed to hell and taken from God.  I cannot cheer for the same.

Now this does not by any means say that I believe that this person should have been left to accomplish more evil on this earth.  It says in Proverbs 11:19, "Truly the righteous attain life, but whoever pursues evil finds death."  Evil will always lead to death and this concept was proven in this case.  What I am saying is that as Christians we should not rejoice or revel in the destruction and death of a creation of God no matter how evil the person was.  Jesus died for all of us and to forgive every sin, no matter the degree. 

Over the past few months God has been teaching me about His love and especially about forgiveness.  John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world..." it didn't say For God so loved the Jews, it didn't say For God so loved the Christians or those that worship Him, or those that obey Him, or those that are good.  It says "For God so loved the WORLD, the sinners and saints alike, that He sent His one and only son, that who ever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting/eternal/forever life.  If we as followers of Christ could get this kind of love down deep inside of us, we would not only be viewed as different, but we would be revolutionary in a world that promotes hate.

I realize my words are unpopular but truth usually is.  If you take nothing from above, take this one thing, God loved us first so that we could love others unconditionally.  If God wishes that none should perish then so should we.

HE IS

For the discouraged, HE IS your courage.  For the hurt, HE IS your healing.  For the abandoned, HE IS the one that will never leave you.  For the hopeless, HE IS hope.  For the heartless, HE IS love.  For the sinner, HE IS salvation.  For the weak, HE IS strength.  For the _____, HE IS!!!

This simple phrase of HE IS, came to me this week as I prepared for Wednesday night.  I was speaking on how Salvation has nothing to do with us, it is all about HIM.  This thought was further strengthened when I had to pray someone through the darkness.  I kept telling this person that HE IS ______ and to call out to HIM.  I believe that God is trying to make a definite statement to HIS people, I AM ALL YOU NEED.

Okay now I know many of you are out there saying, well that's obvious enough.  I mean God calls himself "I AM" in Exodus 3 so this is not really groundbreaking.  To this I ask, if God is really your I AM then why do you live in defeat?  Why don't you get excited?  Why do you worry?

WHY?

We are sons and daughters of I AM.  He  is everything.  How you are doing, what you are doing, where you are, what situation you're in, no matter the question, HE IS the answer.  I challenge everyone who is reading this to get that HE IS I AM down deep inside you.  Believe it with all that you are. Because once it gets on the inside of you, you will never be the same.  You can't help but change because you are now living with the one that can be our everything.

Now go live it because HE IS!!!

Driving into the Unknown

In group meeting this week I proposed a question to the young adults.  If we were all to get on a plane and fly to a place where only one of us had ever lived and had to get to a place in that town, who would drive?  Of course, they all responded that the one that had lived there should drive.  I am sure that many of you would answer the same way or would at the very least ask the person who had lived there for directions.  Now if this is such a simple concept then why do we as believers in an omnipotent God think we need to jump in the driver seat of our own lives.

It says in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;   I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  Furthermore in Matthew 10:30, Jesus told the disciples that even the hairs on our head are numbered.  Personally, I don't even know how many hairs are on my own head but God does.  This means that he knows you better than you know yourself.


In Revelation 22:13 it says: " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."  This means that God can not only see today but he has seen yesterday and he also sees tomorrow.  If our God can see the future as if it is now then he can see our future and furthermore direct our path because he knows its ultimate destination. 

So, if God knows who we are better than we do and He knows our past, present, and future I ask again, why do we keep trying to take the wheel and drive ourselves through life? 

Back in Action

To all my readers, I apologize for my long disappearance.  I have been walking through a desert of emotion and self realization and have emerged a better man.  Now that I am back I hope you are ready to take some on some really crazy topics.  Without further adieu lets get into it!

The Frustration of Being Human

While "The Frustration of Being Human" may sound like a funny joke, this saying has been stuck in my head for the last three weeks.  In the last few weeks I have hit a virtual barrier in the young adult ministry.  Some would tell me to be content with where I am and to refine my style before pressing on.  This is well and good for some but I feel like the two spies in Numbers.  The poor guys come back with a good report, see the vision, they even got a taste of the vision but then because everyone else was content with where they were, these two poor guys had to walk around the desert another 40 years.  These two guys, God's exceptional servants had to wait for the rest of the body to catch up to where they were 40 years earlier. 

Now back to the title.  The frustration of being human for me these last two weeks has been that even though I see the vision God has for His young adults in this area, no one seems to want to stand with me.  I take that back, no one but my wife seems to want to stand with me.  I pray for God to open mens' eyes but I in myself cannot get them to open their eyes to what is staring them in the face.  This is my frustration, but then God tells me to be patient.  He tells me that I will one day see the vision come to pass, one day the church will enter the fields of endless harvest.  Until then, like the two spies, I have to wait and try to become the man God wants me to be.

More to come...

Vectored Vision for 2011

The Vision for 2011

God has given each of us an individual calling.  In 2011 we are called to “Just Do it.”  We are called to leave fear, doubt, and excuses behind and be the men and women that God means for us to be.

The Scripture behind the Vision

  In November, God started to speak to me about the need for us, as young adults, to seek His vision for us in 2011.  In response to God's call, small group changed.  Instead of making our way through a biblical study or a book, small group became a time for prayer and meditation (aka waiting on God).  For me personally I began to dig deeper into God's Word: looking at scripture, watching and listening to sermons, and continually asking that God open up His will for us.  About midway through November, God showed up in a big way at our small group meeting.  The word that God gave me for that night was "To do or not to do."  

To Do or Not to Do

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

John 2:1-5

  To begin with let me just say, what an awesome part of scripture.  Now let me take you a chapter back and set this scripture up.  In John 1:32-34, Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit when John the Baptist baptized him.  Now here we are at a wedding in Galilee.  The scripture says that Jesus' mother was there and Jesus was invited with his disciples.  
    To understand the significance of this scripture let me fill you in on some Jewish culture in regards to weddings.  In the Jewish culture a wedding last a week and usually only family are invited.  This tells us that Jesus was among family, which is further supported by Mary's concern about the wine running out.  So Jesus is among his relatives.
   In verse 4, Jesus asks Mary, "Woman, why do you involve me?"  Now it is normal for a mother to look to her son to help solve a family problem but in this instance Jesus knew what Mary was really asking for.  She wasn't asking him to run down to the ancient 7-11 and get more wine, she wanted him to be the man he was born to be.  Jesus' question then makes perfect sense with the rest of scripture.  Jesus was always asking people questions to test their faith.  In Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus told the Canaanite woman, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs" to test her faith.  When she answered, “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” she was given what she needed because of her tenacious faith.  In the same way Mary's tenacious faith was shown when she looked to the servants and said "Do whatever he tells you" v. 5.  
    This "Do whatever he tells you" from verse 5 struck me and God etched it on my heart.  As we daily make our will submit to the will of God we also need to be willing to do whatever he tells us.  

The Payoff

 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25

   This scripture is pretty self explanatory about doing what God says but I want to zero in on the last verse.  Verse 25 says, "But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do."  The word "blessed" in this scripture comes from the Greek word "makarios" which is actually translated as happy.  You want the secret to happiness, there it is.  Do what God wants you to do and guess what, God promised you will be happy doing it.  

Blessed is the one

  who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

  or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,

  and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

  which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

  whatever they do prospers.

Psalm 1:1-3

   In this scripture God tells us that not only will we be happy if we do what he tells us but our endeavors will prosper.  Knowing this why wouldn't you do God's will?  In John 2, the servants did not know what Jesus was going to do.  He had never performed a miracle, so why follow his instructions.  Fast forward to present day, we know Jesus' miracles and we know Jesus is the son of God.  So again, why don't we just do what God tells us?      

  For 2011, God really impressed upon me that this would be the year that we just do it.  It being whatever he tells us.